First Mate
by midnite-republic
Summary: Just because no-one mentions it out loud does not change the fact that that is what he is. Some people take longer than others to realise it though.
1. Luffy: Chosen

A/N: So, I should be updating my Skip Beat or Psychic Detective Yakumo works, or working on my original, or you know my 2000 word, 8 academic source assignment due in less than a week that I haven't started. But instead I have started another work. I realised that I was about 200 chapters behind in the manga and have started rereading from the start and this idea came to me, it will hopefully get me back into writing again so I can update everything.

This will basically be about various people realising that although no-one actually calls him that in cannon that is his true position in the crew.

* * *

The first time Luffy saw Zoro, he knew he wasn't a normal guy. He heard the stories of course, how could he not have with Coby going over all the ones he knew on the way to that island, and he thought he might be cool. But he didn't _know_ until he saw him himself.

Even though he knew, he couldn't stop himself from making comments about the fact he was being held seemingly only by flimsy ropes, because why would a guy like that stay there.

Luffy learnt a lot the first time he saw that marine yard, and knew then that he wanted Zoro on his crew but it wasn't until the second time entered the yard that he knew the position on said crew would probably be. That was when Zoro told him that he had something he had to do, that he had an ambition.

But even so, it wasn't until the third time he entered the yard, when Zoro told him he would be the world's greatest swordsman, that if Luffy interfered in that dream that he would kill him, then reacted to the unspoken orders to the end the situation in the way Luffy wanted, that he _knew_ that no-one else would fit the position as well as Zoro would.

He'd found and gained his First Mate.

Of course there was no reason to say this out loud.


	2. Zoro: First Crew Member

A/N: So, short quick update, I'm not sure how much I like it, but I needed to do something other than read and am not feeling well enough to study. This is set between leaving the marine base island and Luffy getting caught by the bird.  
Thank you for all the favourites/alerts please keep them coming, the emails remind me that this is here. Also thanks to the Guest and Arxhaelogist for your reviews and to ScarletRoofs: Thank you, I will and I am working on my habit for procrastination.

* * *

Zoro didn't know whether to be impressed or annoyed with his new "captain". Either way it seemed like he was the first member of his crew, of course how long he stayed on the crew depended on the idiot that had blackmailed him onto it.

Though it did seem as if he understood ambitions and dreams and also didn't seem to care for anything else, so this may work, but only time will tell. Of course that would be if the idiot didn't end up drowning first, because living on a small boat with little navigation skills and seeming to have no idea of how to stay in the boat, while not being able to swim, might be troublesome.

Though, he did seem to be able to fight well enough to deal with Zoro taking fights when challenged. He also seemed happy enough with him doing his thing in that marine yard.

Yes, this might work for Zoro for a while.

Huh, did he just get caught by a giant bird. What! Oh, crap!


	3. Nami: Weird Pirates

A/N: So I finished my assignment, took a few days to do nothing and now am back. I might not be the most regular updater but I really want to start a routine and that might help with my other writing too. These might be short but I have realised that eventually there is going to be quite a few of them so please keep letting me know what you think and concrit is welcomed.  
Thanks for all the story alerts/favourites.  
To Guest, thanks, I hope that a week was soon enough.  
To Arxhaelogist, thanks for the feedback, I will try to keep an eye on that in my writing.

* * *

Nami didn't really know what to think of these two guys. They were either real idiots or some form of geniuses, nothing else could explain what happened back there at that island.

She still wasn't quite sure what had happened, or hadn't quite been able to process it. She looked over at the two guys in the other boat and tried to work out how they did it. It wasn't just the strength that defeated the Buggy pirates and how they had it that confused her, it was also how they seemed to know what the other was thinking or about to do, and seamlessly backing each other up.

When she had asked why there crew was so small a short time earlier, the swordsman had replied that it had only been a crew for less than a week, which was impossible. There was no way that could be true, it was impossible for two people who had only known each other for such a shot amount of time to work as well as those two did. She wasn't even able to work as well with Nojiko and she'd known her her entire life.

Nami still couldn't work out how the swordsman had translated run away to move the cannon, or how the boy had known that the other would translate it that way.

Another thing that confused her was the swordsman. Of course she had heard of Roronoa Zoro, the Pirate Hunter, during her travels, no one who travelled the East Blue could avoid the name. But why, if this was really him, would he join forces with a pirate, let alone this straw hat wearing boy. She would have thought, given the rumours, that he would be as likely as her to truly join a pirate crew, but here he seemingly was able to interpret unspoken orders and showing a form of loyalty. He obviously came looking for his "captain", then saved her when she was trying to stop the cannon, when he could have just walked away.

They were an odd sort of pirate, if they chose to fight for the reasons she thought they did, then deliberately leaving half her haul for the village. She guessed she could forgive them for that, after all wasn't that the reason she was stealing in the first place, to protect a village.

They were interesting, all right. It was almost a shame that she wouldn't be with them long, she would have liked to see what else they would do.

* * *

P.S: Nami seemed to want to focus on both of them in this one, but what is the first mate without the captain.


	4. Usopp: New Seas, New Eyes

A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to get this one done, all I can say is life got in the way and it is really hard to write Usopp, especially early on. I'm not so sure what I think of this but it's done and I will move on to the next one. I have the next three semi-planned and hopefully they won't be as hard to work on and be out quicker.  
As always thanks for all the follows and favs, and reviews are welcome.  
Special thanks to ScarletRoofs for the review.  
Arxhaelologist: Thanks for the advice of what to work on, sorry for all the problems I know are going to be in this one that I am not seeing, also thanks for letting me know what you liked about it.

* * *

Usopp still wasn't completely sure how he ended up where he was, or maybe it was that he couldn't quite believe it yet. He was standing on a pirate ship that he was part of the crew on. It still didn't quite seem real. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that the events of the past few days where still a little blurry.

One of the many things that still didn't seem to make much sense to him was that he was on the same crew as the man known as the Demon of the East Blue. At first when they landed on his island he had thought that maybe he had just shared the same first name as the pirate hunter, but Zoro's capability in battle and his strength convinced Usopp that he was the one the rumours where about, but his working so well with Luffy lead him to believe that maybe his reputation as a ruthless loner was exaggerated.

At least, that was, until those two idiots that ended up on board and started sharing stories of the times when they had followed Zoro while he was a pirate hunter. Those sounded almost too close to the rumours Usopp had heard for his comfort, and yet didn't completely fit with what he had seem during the battle for his village.

Listening to the stories that Johnny and Yosaku told there would be no way that Zoro would take orders or leave a tough fight to someone else, but that was what had happened. He followed Luffy's order to help Usopp save Kaya, and in doing so left a fight with a pirate captain, the toughest fighter on the other crew, to Luffy.

Usopp wasn't an idiot, he knew that this difference in behaviour meant something. Even more telling as to what it meant was the way that Luffy's behaviour changed when dealing with Zoro, he treated Zoro differently than he does Usopp and Nami, like he was in some other position than the others.

Usopp may brag about being Captain or Vice-Captain but he doesn't think he will ever truly believe it because he can see that both those positions were filled long before he even met the crew.


	5. Zoro: Acceptance

A/N: So, not sure what was going through my head as I was writing this, all I remember is being very distracted. This one is Zoro accepting that he was stuck with the crew. Let me know what you think.  
As always, thanks for the favs and alerts.  
DominaNocte:Thanks, I'm not even sure what Chopper's is going to be like yet, I haven't quite gotten out of the East Blue in planning yet, but it should be fun to write and it is good to know someone is excited to keep reading as it makes me excited to write it.  
Guest: Thanks.  
Arxhaelologist: Thank you! The writing advice is always appreciated, and is good to hear that you couldn't find much in this one.  
ScarletRoofs: Thank You!

* * *

Zoro rested against the side of the boat that was following the missing Going Merry and crewmate. He wasn't sure what to think of Nami's actions but Luffy wanted both of them back and so had told them to go ahead while he finished up at the restaurant.

Zoro was still processing what could be have been one most important moments of his life. The duel with Mihawk was the greatest duel he had ever fought, though he had lost it gave him an idea of how much he need to work to reach his dream.

But other than that the other thing he need to think on was the way Luffy had acted during the duel and his own reaction to that. Luffy had left Zoro to choose to challenge Mihawk after seeing the power the greatest swordsman held. Also during the fight he held back not interfering, and also held Johnny and Yosaku back so they didn't interfere.

Zoro hadn't thought it was possible to find someone who truly understood his dreams and what would have to occur on the road to that dream, but Luffy had managed to prove him wrong. He proved that he could handle Zoro's choice of who to fight and understood the rules of his fights.

After all that and what he had seen of Luffy's fighting ability during the time they had spent together, Zoro had realised when he returned to consciousness after the duel to find Luffy had lost it that there was no denying it anymore. Luffy was the Captain he never believed he would find and he didn't mind working under him. If Luffy was willing to believe him in his dream, he was more than willing to completely believe that his Captain will be Pirate King, he knew it would happen.

So, why not make sure everyone else knew what they knew.

* * *

A/N 2: So, not sure when the next one will be up, I'll be writing in breaks from various assessments.


	6. Sanji: Not Exactly Typical

A/N: So, a new one, I am trying to not have to large gaps between chapters but assessments seem to like to be all on top of each other and this is butting into my writing time. This was interesting to write as I see Sanji as a very logical guy and not very quick to jump to conclusions on dynamics of a group. At this point he hadn't seen much of the everyday interaction between crew members and if I remember correctly this was the first scene after joining the crew that he and Zoro were together.  
As always thanks for follows and favourites.  
Please review to let me know what you think or to help with any writing errors you see, con-crit is welcome.  
Arxhaelogist: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm not quite sure what you meant in that question, so I can't quite answer it.  
Waterwomen1414: Thank you, not quite, but that will be next.  
ScarletRoofs: Thank you and I will keep going.

* * *

Sanji was aware he had only seen a small amount of interaction between the members of his new crew before he had joined and even now due to the current circumstances he had very little idea of what was the usual. With their beautiful lady navigator acting as she was and the time he had spent between Baratie and the island with only his new captain for company.

Even with this he had been on the seas long enough and seen enough in his time there to have a basic understanding of various crew dynamics. He had seen enough of this crew to know they weren't exactly what you would call typical pirates.

Take what had just occurred as an example. Their beautiful navigator's equally beautiful sister had offered to explain her sister's story and actions and their captain had walked off, claiming not to care, he just wanted her back as she was their navigator, then the swordsman, who had stuck around, just went to sleep before she could begin, seeming to care about the same amount as their captain.

Of course, Sanji had had a preview of this diversion from typical back at the Baratie, when Luffy had allowed the swordsman to pick a fight with the greatest swordsman in the world without a fuss, just because he had wanted to. That was not something a typical pirate captain would allow. Then there was the fact that Luffy wouldn't allow anyone to interfere until it was over.

It might take some time for Sanji to set the dynamics of this crew straight in his mind but first things first, they had a navigator to convince to return to them.


	7. Nami: New Understanding (What Happened?)

A/N: Apologies for not updating for over a month and a half, all I can say is Assessments Suck. This may be the longest chapter yet so I hope that makes up for the long wait. I wrote this while taking a break from cramming info into my head for an exam so I'm not sure how good it is, please feel free to let me know with a review,  
As ever thanks for the faves and follows.  
Azul D Oceanic: Thanks, I hope this chapter gives you the same feeling.  
ScarletRoofs: Thanks. I love them all and that is definitely the first step in surviving the StrawHats.  
Arxhaelogist: Yeah, basically that was what I was going for in that chapter. Thank You.  
Estreilla: Thank you. I hope you like the length of this one and I will work on that for future chapters.

* * *

Nami was still processing what had happened. This seemed to be something that she would have to get used to now she had officially joined this weird bunch of pirates, as the crazy ideas, challenges an insanely unbelievable accomplishments appeared to be something that would continue in their path to wherever they would end up.

They had done it, accomplished the one thing she had been working toward for eight years, they had freed her village. Maybe not in the way that she had thought it would happed but they did it, together. That fact alone would have been enough to need time to be able to process but how they had done it, all of her crew working together, for her, was what had left her truly bemused.

Thinking back on her first impressions on this crew, when it was just two weird guys in a tiny boat that didn't quite look seaworthy that she was sure she would just use and move on from, there was no way she would have though this could have happened in a million years.

Back then she would have laughed at the thought of two "pirates" fighting so hard for her after she had "betrayed" them, stealing their ship and leaving them stranded.

Okay, so maybe, she might have had some slight understanding that Luffy was an idiot who would do things for incomprehensible reasons but Zoro's actions at the Park she would have had no idea. Well, maybe she had seen little clues that he could, the understanding between the two for instance, but to do such a crazy thing for her benefit, no never.

Nami remembered her first reaction when she had realised just how badly Zoro had been wounded before the fight with the fishmen, she could not understand how he was able to stand, let alone fight for her and for Luffy. But she guessed now that may have been the key to it. Luffy was in trouble and unable to do anything for his crew, so Zoro stood up and did what he could in his place. Hadn't she seen it before in other places, in other fights they had seen together, Luffy wasn't able to take a fight or was dealing with something else so Zoro took care of it. It seemed that this was true even when he was so injured a normal person wouldn't be able to move.

Her head began to hurt from thinking it over for too long. So for now she began turning her mind away from the past to the future. Now that they had more crew members she guessed they should start working out their ranks on the crew amongst themselves if they were to get very far without turning on themselves in confusion. She had some clues as to the basic gist of who should have what position but she would have to see what the new guy was like first. And really did they need to do this all verbally.


	8. Tashigi: How?

A/N: I finished my last exam for the semester so to celebrate a new chapter only a week after the last one. I now have a little more time onmy hands so might be a bit quicker all around for updating. So, this one isn't from anyone on the crew but she is one of my favorite non-Straw Hats and I figured if I didn't do something from around this point there would be a massive timeline gap before the next one (which will be set after little garden, give me some guesses as to who you might think it bases around). This is my longest chapter to date in this fic, 699 words of story, please let me know what you think in a review.  
As always thank you for the favorites and follows.  
Arxhaelologist: Yeah, I guess that's kind of what makes it fun for us fans as we can kind of pick who has what ranks, I don't remember if it is ever addressed in the manga as I'm still somewhere in the Punk Hazard Arc (I wanted to reread the entire thing before going further but kept having other things pop up so haven't quite done it yet). Thanks, Nami is an interesting character perspective to write. I actually think that was an interesting analogy.

* * *

Tashigi was feeling a mess of emotions, the most prominent being angry and confused. She was going over the day's events continually in her mind and still could not understand how it had happen while trying to work out what she could have done to get a better outcome.

She guessed the day started off normally enough until she met the odd green haired man, but the day started to go sideways when she didn't ask him his name. (She really should have asked for his name.)

She remembered seeing the Wado Ichimonji on the counter at the sword shop and being shocked to see such a legendary sword in such a small shop. She also remembered that the man who owned it was looking for two new swords too and that she had made some comment about he must break a lot of sword if he needed three of them and the only other person who she had heard of that carried three swords was the bounty hunter, Pirate Hunter Zoro. (She should have seen the signs then, she had talked about him. She should have put it together.)

She remembered the fuss when the man found Sandai Kitetsu in the cheap sword bucket, and the frankly amazing display that came after. How he ended up without a scratch from such an act involving a cursed sword, she had no idea. (How can some pirate scum have such luck or skill?) And then the reaction of the storekeep at seeing it, giving him that the Kitetsu and the meito Yubashiri, his most prized sword. (How can such a man hold so many legendary swords?)

Tashigi particularly remembered the incident in the execution square. How could she forget a moment of what occurred. Everything had been over in minutes but had felt like it had truly occurred over the course of hours, like it was happening in slow motion. The pirate Straw Hat Luffy on the execution platform, the Pirate Clown holding a sword above his head. The commotion as two men fought through the army of men in the square. Recognising the man from the store, hearing someone nearby mutter "Pirate Hunter" as she saw him using all three swords. Straw Hat yelling that he was sorry, (the name Zoro), smiling as the sword came down. The lightning. The despair of the man (Pirate Hunter) and his companion, yelling the boy's name. Realising that he had been fighting for the Straw Hat while running to help in the fight (to get the meitos), and the Straw Hat boy walking out of the destruction of the platform calmly. _Them_ beginning to fight their way out. (She gotten his name. Should have seen the signs. How could he have such luck and skill? How can one man have ownership of so many of the meitos? He was the Pirate Hunter. Why was the Pirate Hunter fighting for a Pirate?)

She remembered what happen when she caught up to them. She fought the Pirate Hunter who was now a pirate himself. He told the man and Straw Hat boy he was with to go on without him and he would be along soon, and they believed him, trusted him. Even if the man complained about something while it happened (she was focused on the swordsman with the legendary swords, not really listening). She remembered fighting, each stroke burned into her memory, and she remembered losing her sword. She knows what that should have meant in any true fight, she couldn't defend herself so she should've died. That was what she had been taught would happen. But he didn't kill her. (He was a Pirate, she a Marine. He won, she lost. He should have killed her. Why didn't he kill her?) The only thing that could have stayed his hand was the fact that she was female, but when she confronted him he started yelling nonsense and started running. (What did he mean? Why didn't he kill her?)

She heard the rest of what happened as they left from Captain Smoker and now they had decided that those pirates will be their targets. She will get her answers and those swords back.


	9. Vivi: Insanity

A/N: Thanks to those that reviewed with guesses as to who's perspective this one was going to be in, I even got some ideas for future chapters from some of them. I went back to the last chapter and put back in the missing word from the last paragraph that some of my reviewers pointed out, so have a look if you were confused. So, I was all proud of the length of the last one and now I have this one, over 1300 words. The truth is I was all excited about planning this one then when I sat down to write it I realized that Vivi was difficult for me to write and it took me longer than I expected to finish it and included a lot more detail of her entire interactions with the crew than I had planned to be in it, but it was interesting to try and see events through her perspective. The next one will be set not long after this one and will be from a perspective that I haven't seen many fics showing around this piont in time, feel free to review with guesses (and maybe give me a few more ideas) and what you think of this one.  
As ever thanks for the faves and follows.  
meme7789: Thanks, hope you like this.  
(Edit: I seem to keep losing words) Arxhaelogist: Even looking back over that last paragraph and returning the missing word, I'm not all that happy with that paragraph to tell the truth, I think I even confuse myself. Thank you for that it was my first time using that style of writing and I'm glad it turned out that way. I really wanted to focus on the actions in the square and the interaction of the crew on the street but Tashigi kind of took over so not so much focus on the first mate stuff but a start on understanding for later. Okay, long reply but thank you and so many ideas.  
Rizard13: Lol. Thank you, I went back and hopefully fixed it. Yes, as you can see, I'm not going to confine this to just official StrawHats, because that way I can show incidents that are probably not going to be seen or closely looked at by the crew due to overexposure but probably not going to use antagonists. Anyway, thank you and hope you like it.  
Guest: Well, here is one and there may be another set later on.

* * *

In the time that Vivi had spent with these pirates she had noticed that they weren't exactly normal. In fact that was putting it nicely, they were all some form of insane. But two of their members were more so than the others, at least in her opinion and experience.

The time they had just spent on the island of Little Garden had just confirmed this impression.

It wasn't as if her first impressions of this crew were of a particularly sane group of people and she had was undercover in Baroque Works at the time, where she was surrounded by some very eccentric individuals. The again what was one meant to think of a group of people when you first saw them in the stomach of an island whale, who certainly didn't seem worried by their position. Of course, she didn't see them all very clearly due to being knocked out soon after making first contact.

Then there was the issue about them coming to the Grand Line with apparently no idea how to navigate the sea. Which she had noticed when she had regained consciousness and listened to try and judge her and Mr 9's escape. Also when they had begged a ride to Whiskey Peak from them, intending to lead them to the bounty hunters there. Vivi remembered feeling guilty about that, due to them being nice and naïve enough to believe they would not lead them to trouble, but had known that she needed to keep her own cover a while longer.

It was during this relatively short trip that she gained the impression that they may not just be a little stupid but quite possibly a crew of madmen (and madwoman). With the cowardly liar trying to help where he could but really just running about screaming as a new danger showed itself. The chef falling into a love daze any time either she or the girl navigator made any comment. The navigator screaming instructions and threats at the top her lungs whenever she realised that something had happened. And then there were the other two, the boy they had implied was their captain laughing through it all while the muscular swordsman slept through everything, and she meant everything, the yelling, violence in the attempt to wake him, waves breaking no-stop over the deck, storms and snow piling over him. She had been almost relieved by the time they were close enough to the shore to make a swim for it with Mr 9, it had been that sort of trip.

The events at Whiskey Peak cemented the impression that she had gained on that trip. But it also gave a new dimension to her impression of them. They could be very dangerous when they felt they needed to be.

The evening began as if they were just willing to party completely without any caution as to why an entire island would welcome a bunch of unknown pirates, which helped her impression of insanity from the ship but this had only lasted until after the party had seemingly come to an end. When the bounty hunters were gathering to begin their real task and the swordsman had made his shocking appearance. It was shocking not just because everyone had believed him to be passed out from the alcohol he had consumed, but he knew who they were and he also made a comment that implied he knew his crew had had a hard day while he had apparently been completely unconscious. He then proceeded to fight and take down all the bounty hunters (Baroque Work Millions) on the island. Then when Mr 5 and Miss Valentine had come for her after defeating Mr 9, Miss Monday and Igaram, he had come and stood between her and danger telling her that he was there to save her. Which had confused her, even more so when his captain had come and attacked him. This, of course, led to a fight between them that levelled the town which had ended up taking down the two remaining agents of Baroque Works as collateral damage. This fight did not stop until the navigator stepped in and violently stopped them. Then proceeded to explain everything which cleared up some of the confusion of what had happened and offered their ship to get her home. After everything that had happened they offered her their ship and their protection. Now she knew they weren't exactly sane.

It was during her second voyage on their ship, this time as herself, that she really began to understand a little more of the way of things on the ship. They did things their own way, and ignored most pirate conventions, listening to and obeying the captain for instance, not attacking the captain in any way for another, but that worked for them. And despite everything they were fiercely loyal to each other, despite the display on Whiskey Peak which everyone just seemed to ignore, but never openly displayed any of this loyalty (except Sanji-san for Nami). Their individual deviations from sanity made their crew all the stronger. This led her to accepting the way things were, after an initial period were she may have been a little wary of the crew, due to her own actions and what they could have led to back on the island, but their reactions to the appearance of Miss All Sunday quickly helped to settle that.

Despite learning all of this while on the ship she was genuinely concerned with what had happened while on Little Garden. Mr Bushido had been completely willing during their time in the wax to cut off his own feet to get free. She was well aware at this point in her relationship with the crew that he would do whatever was necessary to win a fight but the loss of his feet would not be good for his future as a fighter, but he was completely relaxed in going through with this plan. He had even begun to make the cut when Luffy had burst into the clearing. Vivi was relieved that this had stopped Mr Bushido's plan and sword in its tracks but she was still seriously concerned about his willingness to do so. As grateful as she was for the crew's protection this was act was almost too much for her to process. And what almost concerned her more than Mr Bushido's actions was the reaction of his captain, the one who had seemed to be person on the crew closest to the swordsman, he had seemed in no way concerned for the wounds he now had and implications of what his actions may have led to. It seemed more insane than anything else that she had seen from the crew.

Nami must have noticed that Vivi couldn't seem to stop herself from making concerned glances at Mr Bushido's ankles after everything was over as she had quietly come beside her and pulled her a little out of earshot of the others. Nami told her with exasperated affection that Mr Bushido was known to do stupid things and get himself injured but didn't like to be fussed over and that she needed to try and ignore the blood as he figured out how bad the injuries were and he would get help if he thought he needed it. This didn't make much sense to her considering all she had seen among the crew, and didn't make her any less concerned but knew Nami knew the crew better than her.

As much as she knew each member of this crew was slightly less then sane, she had become attached to each of them and couldn't seem to deal well with any of them getting injured. She hoped that their insanity and their commitment each other and helping her didn't get any of them killed.


	10. Sanji: Worry and Annoyance

A/N: Sorry for disappearing for so long, I got distracted by my final semester of studying. With that now finished, I hope not to have such a large gap again. I have gone back to a few chapters to edit some of the typos and such but no content changes, I don't know if I caught them all, I hope I also caught most that might be in this chapter. Also while I was doing this and looking over some of my document drafts I realised that some of the previous dropped words were in them so I hope that doesn't happen again when I publish this one. So, this one is Sanji between Little Garden and Drum, hope you like it and feel free to review to let me know.  
As always thanks for faves and follows.  
Rizard13: Yeah you were right. Sorry for the long wait on this one, not quite Chopper yet but soon. Thanks for the review.  
Harihi: Well, I don't know if I can do it, Vivi is hard.  
meme7789: Thanks for that, I got on and fixed that as soon as I got the review. Sorry for such a long wait for this one.  
Arxhaelologist: Yeah, Vivi and her story kind of took over and sidetracked the rest of the story. Thanks for letting me know what you think. I think almost everyone starts taking the crew's behavior for granted after after a point.  
Guest: Thanks, and I will try to work on that. Sorry for the long wait.  
Nike Scarlet: Thanks. Sorry for the long wait for more.  
Waterwomen1414: Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. I'm definitely not going to be this long on the next one.

* * *

Sanji was annoyed at himself. He was not comfortable with the way he had reacted in the last few days, particularly the automatic way in which he had done it. He really didn't like it at all.

It had all happened because the most beautiful Nami-swan had fallen ill at the worst possible time in the journey (of course, he in no way blamed her), with things becoming more unstable in the magnificent Vivi's homeland necessitating the swiftest course to Alabasta. Of course, Nami-swan had attempted to hide this from Vivi to try and stop her from worrying herself sick, because she was so kind and lovely, but she was forced to reveal it when the need for a doctor for herself was becoming obvious to the rest of the crew. She knew it was information that needed to be taken into consideration.

At that point Sanji had had no idea what to do, with the conflicting needs to help both beautiful women, where it seemed to help one would destroy the other. He had been consumed with worry of what would happen, even as he tried not to show it too much.

Then his Captain had made the decision to leave the next course of action to Vivi. That was when his concern became almost overwhelming, knowing that the decision she would have to make and the consequences of it may destroy the caring, beautiful woman.

But what annoyed him about this situation, when he took the time to consider it after the decision had been made, was where he had looked for reassurance at this precarious point. His first thought was to look to the moss-head to see whether he was worried about the outcome of the situation where both Vivi's country and Nami's live were on the line. _He had looked to the moss-head for reassurance that it would all end up alright_. That this situation would not end up destroying one or both of the beautiful flowers.

What only made it worse was that when he had seen that _he_ seemed to be unconcerned about such an outcome to the situation, Sanji was relieved, he felt like it would all work out in way to save them all.

And now as they made their way to find a doctor for Nami-swan due to Vivi-chan deciding that that would be the swiftest course to Alabasta, Sanji could acknowledge that his reaction annoyed him. That looking to the _moss-head_ of all people for their reaction and gaining reassurance from it was not something he ever wanted to admit to anyone and hoped none of the crew saw. He certainly didn't want to acknowledge the reason he had done such a thing.

Sanji had been at sea a long time, and had through his time on the Baratie seen a lot of crews and the way in which they interacted with each other. Although it was never mentioned on the Merry, he knew that ranks of crew-members did influence things. He also knew what him looking to the swordsman for reassurance when the Captain had given the choice that could destroy them all to their guest meant. He knew that in his automatic reaction to the situation he had acknowledged a rank that was never spoken of on the Merry at any point.

The problem was that even if he never admitted it to anyone, he would know that this subconscious had acknowledged that the green haired moron held a higher rank on the Merry than he did. This made Sanji very annoyed at himself.


	11. Chopper: Monsters and Demons

A/N: So Copper is now part of the crew. This came more easily than I had feared it would. The last chapter kind of solidified a thought I had in the back of my head for a while for this fic, looking not just at the relationship between Luffy and Zoro, but at crew dynamics as seen by various crewmembers. This means that this fic may go on longer than I originally thought, but I'm still enjoying it.  
As ever thanks for all the faves and follows.  
Queen Lily Tiger Ellyessa: Thanks. Yes, poor Sanji.  
Ilovecartonsgirl: Thank you, I hope you continue to love them.  
WinglessCrows: Thanks.  
Arxhaelogist: Thanks, I particularly like when they react like this even though they logically know that Zoro isn't always the best person to judge trouble.  
Ki Ken Tai Ichi: Thanks. Yeah, I love Thriller Bark too, but it seems a bit late in the story for that realisation for Sanji, even though he really doesn't like it at all.

* * *

Chopper still having trouble believing that he was really there, that he was really on a pirate ship as a crew member. Let alone that he was the ship doctor, at least he was now that the captain and the rest of the crew was aware that he was a doctor. It was almost too much to take in at once.

He remembered Luffy protecting the doctor's flag, _his_ flag, when knew so little of who he was and the way he wanted to look after his friends, the lengths he went to in order to get them help. The way he didn't care that Chopper was a monster and in fact referred to himself as one. It was almost too much to believe, but that was only his introduction to Luffy.

The rest of the crew was another issue. Nami seemed nice enough, the first to acknowledge him as a doctor and was willing to help him settle in. Sanji was a little scary, with him constantly referring to Chopper as the emergency food supply. Usopp was fun, always willing to play and tell good stories. Vivi was kind and interesting, a princess who was trying to save her country, so different to the only royalty that Chopper had ever known. But Zoro was the one that he had been most concerned about on boarding the ship, with him smelling so like steal, blood and pain.

Chopper's first sight of Zoro may have had something to do with his wariness of him, with him in the uniform of Warpol's men. Who could really blame him for that after everything Warpol had done? But as they say, first impressions last, even if the ridiculous circumstances behind that outcome was explained as a joke to the rest of the crew.

But over the last few days Chopper had been slowly getting used to the way things were in the crew. Noticing many different things about how each of his new crewmates. He knew that Nami could sense a storm before there was any real indication that it was coming. Sanji may mutter about the male crew members but always ensured that they had more than the minimum amount of nutrients for them to be productive on the ship. Usopp may be a bit of an exaggerator but was always able to read the emotional state of each of the crew and modify stories to help their moods. Vivi was holding up well, but she was really worried about the situation in Alabasta. Zoro liked to take naps wherever and whenever, often when everyone else thought he should be awake, but would jump in to help when he was _really_ needed. Luffy was often a hyperactive ball of fun and trouble but could get even Zoro to play when he really wanted.

The incident that Chopper pin-pointed to truly start him feeling comfortable with being a part of the crew and fully accepting the fact that Luffy really accepted that Chopper may be a monster but they could be friends anyway was when one morning Chopper had come up to the deck early in the morning, before the sun had risen. He had found a shirtless Zoro easily lifting weights that Chopper's training said should be considered to be too heavy for the human body to lift safely, and showing scars from wounds that looked like they could have been life threatening. Chopper had not wanted to distract the man and cause him to drop the weight and so had sat quietly and watched, trying to apply the medical knowledge he had to what he was seeing. He had continued to sit there until Usopp had come up on deck with his sketchbook and almost tripped over him. He must have noticed Chopper's subject of interest because he had joined him and started telling stories of the Demon of the East Blue, a monster who hunted pirates and brutally with his three swords. The sun had risen by the time the stories had changed to tell of how this demon had joined another monster, a rubberman, and saved an island with a witch and a heroic marksman and gained a ship.

It was as Sanji called the breakfast was ready, and Zoro put down his weights that Chopper had realised that the stories that Usopp had been telling lacked his usual amount of exaggeration, these were real stories, tales of the crew before they were the crew. If they could accept the Demon of the East Blue into their midst, they could certainly accept the Monster of Drum as fully.

Maybe Zoro wasn't as scary has Chopper had feared. After all, why couldn't a demon be friends with monsters?

* * *

A/N2: So, I have been talked into taking part in NaNoWriMo by a friend, but I am still hoping to write and post the chapters (between 5 and 7 depending on how many StrawHats want to take part) I have planned for Alabasta by the end of November.


	12. Ace: Little Brothers and Crews

A/N: I could not resist this one, especially because it was the only point that Ace was going to be able to get a POV in this fic. I wrote this one in a break from my NaNoWriMo story that had was giving me writers block, only 4 days in, so it was nice that it just flowed out.  
As always, thanks for the faves and follows.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks. Chopper is adorable so I'm glad I was able to put a little into his chapter.  
Arxhaelogist: Thank you. I was happy to get to Chopper, and I felt with the crew getting larger and together for longer, it allowed those who were now more settled on the crew to help the new members.

* * *

Ace settled back into the Striker with a small smile. It was good to see his troublesome little brother again after so long, and get a glimpse of the crew he had built for himself. It had only been a short reunion for them and he hadn't had a proper introduction to each of the members because both parties had their own goals that needed to be met and time constraints on them, but it had been enough for a rough idea of things.

Ace had always been good at picking up nuances in groups of people and picking up dynamics in various relationships, blame it on his isolation from much of society and feeling he needed to be able to know the reactions of the people around him in case something slipped. This had served him well not only in his childhood but also in his time as the Spade's captain and even more so as a Whitebeard pirate, and was also the reason why he was so annoyed and had felt so much responsibility that he didn't pick up the true danger of Teach until after he made his move. But he refused to allow that traitor ruin his mood from seeing his brother.

Better to think of the odd group that had gathered around his brother and their reactions to him and each other. That was a much better subject to ponder.

The muscular, green hair man with three swords at his hip, the orange haired girl who had spoken most often for the crew-members, the long-nosed boy whose name sounded vaguely familiar, the small, fluffy creature, the sharply dressed blond and refined blue haired girl. Certainly an interesting group, especially given the size and how far they had come together so fast, it had only been a few months since Luffy had turned seventeen.

But it was the way in which the crew had interacted that had caught Ace's interest, and it seemed almost completely subconscious too, it seemed this crew may be destined for greatness from the brief glimpse that he had gotten. Ace had always known that Luffy was going to do something with his life as a pirate and that when Luffy thought of the pirate he wanted to be it was based on Shanks and his crew, but he didn't think he would be able to find the right pieces for such a crew so quickly, and this was only the outline of the beginning.

It was obvious that Luffy was the Captain of his little crew but that the crew had no problem letting him know if he should have done something or reminding him of simple facts, which as his older brother, Ace knew he needed in order to remember certain lifesaving things. It was also obvious to Ace that although the orange-haired girl did most of the talking, she was not the next down in the chain of command on the ship. She was a highly respected and positioned crew-member but she was not the first mate.

Ace may have made the mistake of believing that she was, if he hadn't seen the looks directed at the mostly silent green haired man at the moments Ace had been introduced, had asked them to look after his little brother and asked if Luffy wanted to join the Whitebeards. The kind of looks that he had seen given by the Red-Haired pirates to Benn Beckman when Shanks was saying, or doing, something outrageous, or the Whitebeard pirates directed at Marco when Whitebeard didn't seem to be making any sense to the rest of the crew, or a bit of history was brought up. Glances looking for reassurance of the situation from the next most powerful person on the crew, the first mate.

But what impressed Ace most about the entire situation wasn't that the swordsman didn't once seem to waver but that the seeking of reassurance wasn't conscious, that it was looked for and received without any of the participants seeming to realise what had happened. This was something Ace had noticed on a lot of prominent crews, the making of a crew from just a group of many individuals out for themselves to a working unit that relied on each other without doubts, without even thinking of it.

Yes, if that crew continued as it was and any new additions followed on, they would go very far. His brother was going to make a mark on the seas, and Ace wasn't yet sure whether to be proud or concerned.

* * *

A/N2: Also I noticed that one of the reviews I got from the last chapter, that I got the email for, wasn't showing on this site, so if this has happened previously and I have not replied to your review, sorry, I usually reply from the review list on the site.


	13. Smoker: Captain's Orders

A/N: So, this just flowed out really easily, which was nice considering the issues I've been having with my NaNo project. I know this event has been covered quite a few times but I felt I needed to put it in this story, I mean it is the first real point I found for Captain's Orders other than the incident with Buggy and Luff's run away order. Apologies in advance to the long intro into the point of the chapter but I felt that it needed a little Smoker context to how he thought over what he saw and understood.  
Thanks as always for follows and faves.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks.  
Arxhaelogist: Yeah, that's what I meant, thanks for that. I like the fact that non-StrawHats POVs allow an outside world context on the crew. Thanks again.

* * *

Smoker pondered his decision to split from his crew as he continued to travel back toward his ship. He knew that it had definitely confused Tashigi but given all he had found out in Rain Dinners, he knew he had to split the resources he currently had and call in for backup if the pirates didn't do what he now knew they had currently been planning. It almost boggled his mind that that is what that crew was wanting to do but having done his research on the little crew after heading out after them, trying to find a way to track how they may move, he knew they weren't joking when they said that they were going to try and stop the civil war that was breaking out in this country.

In these investigations he conducted, he had found unexpected facts of the defeats of Buggy the Clown and Sawtooth Arlong, the facts hidden deep in the reports that the small crew had interacted with the people of the islands who had been conquered by these pirates and their actions while during these interactions inferred to them that they would fight the resident pirate for the people they interacted with. There was even hidden deep in these reports on the crew, a small mention of the island that had formally been controlled by the disgraced Captain Morgan that Straw Hat and the Swordsman who Tashigi had become obsessed with had been the ones to deal with the issue, not the former second-in-command as was the common story.

Not that he felt like letting Tashigi in on this little fact, she would probably do that female thing that interprets a fact as meaning something else. Not that she had a habit of falling into female complexity, but it seemed that that is what she had done in the response to the Swordsman's actions in Logue Town. At least, that is how he understood from what she reported to him the facts of what had happened, compared with how she had interpreted the Swordsman's actions. After reading all the reports on the crew's movements and actions that were available to him it seemed that he was right in his interpretation, but who knew how Tashigi would take the knowledge he had.

This was all information he had gotten from the reports. The most enduring impression he had of the crew as a whole from his own interactions with them was that they were all slightly insane. But this might just be from his interactions with the one they referred to as their Captain, and Straw Hat obviously had at least one screw loose. Though he also seemed to either have the luck of the devil, or was more intellectually gifted and strategically knowledgeable than he came across, or both to have gotten where he is now.

Which led his thoughts to what had occurred in that blasted city to change all his plans about his actions in Alabasta. He would not be able pursue Straw Hat until after this mess was cleaned up, because beside the matter of honour he was currently working under, he needed that unexpected crew of his to hold the line at least until he could get some marine reinforcements to help settle the matter.

Of what had occurred that day, this was what he knew for certain. He had pursued Straw Hat and certain members of his crew, the Swordsman, a red haired woman and a long nosed boy, into Rain Dinners, hoping to capture the pirate that had driven him into the Grand Line. He had followed them through to a section of the casino that branched off of the main floor and into what was, looking at it outside a pursuit scenario, a very obvious trap. This had dumped all five of them into a cage made of sea-stone in a room made of glass, surrounded by water and banadiles. This had led to them settling into the cage, Smoker sitting in a corner, watching the antics of Straw Hat and his long-nosed mate and the red haired woman yelling at the both of them, the Swordsman taking a place leaning on the wall, keeping one eye on his crewmates, another on Smoker and having a general air of perception of the room beyond.

Then had come the arrival of Crocodile and the woman, Ms. Sunday, the crew in the cage with him called her, but he recognised as Nico Robin and soon afterwards the arrival of Princess Vivi of Alabasta. It had been a little bit of a shock to see the believed missing Crown Princess of Alabasta, it was even more so to see the Straw Hat crew familiar with her, though it did answer some of the questions he had been asking himself. The plan against the country had been revealed and the trap fully set, water and banadiles set on them as their captors left to deal with a problem of a Mr Prince. After a few tense moments, a rescue was conducted by a man appearing to be another member of the crew who Smoker vaguely recalled from the Logue Town square and a display of fighting ability by the Captain and the Swordsman ensued.

Then had come an action that still slightly confused and worried Smoker. As the room had cracked fully and water came rushing in he had known he was in real trouble without a fellow marine to pull him out of the water that was his enemy. But, although he never heard any speech, orders or decisions being made, in fact the only utterances seemed to be sounds of panic, as the water rushed at him and started to drag him under he felt a strong grip on the back of his jacket and being pulled up toward the surface. When he and his rescuer reached the surface he had looked to them and saw the Swordsman his subordinate had become obsessed with. Smoker had known in that moment that he needed an explanation of why a pirate would save a marine, he had needed to know whether his suspicions of this man and his crew were close to right, because if they were, he knew they would be more dangerous than anyone had yet to give them credit for.

So, Smoker had made his move as the rest of the crew began to gather itself, he swung his jitte at the swordsman to get his attention. Asking the question, and getting the answer he had almost expected. The answer in itself also happened to answer some questions Smoker had had about the former bounty hunter.

 _Captain's Orders._ Two words that said so much about the man, Straw Hat and the rest of his crew.

From these events he now had answers, to many of the questions he had developed about Straw Hat and his crew, though not all the answers he could know for certain. He did know this though, Tashigi had found herself an impressive goal, for all her not truly having much understanding of the man.

The Swordsman had been, for all his apparent lack of care about being in a cage, watching over his crewmates and making a point to watch Smoker, and Smoker had no doubt that if he had done something that could be taken as a threat to the man's crew, he would have reacted violently. Smoker also knew from the tone the Swordsman had used in his answer that he had not wanted to save Smoker, but had done it anyway because his Captain had told him to.

But what Smoker found most telling about the man and the situation was that Smoker had not heard any verbal order or argument about saving him, but it had obviously happened. That spoke of an understanding and a relationship between the two men that could be extremely dangerous to any who stood against their crew.

It was well known among the marines that occasionally there will be a crew that emerges that shows such a relationship between a Captain and a first mate, especially early in a pirate's career. It was also known that if they were left to grow with their crews, they would become very successful, there were rumours of these relationships seen in the Roger pirates, the Whitebeards and more recently in the Red-Haired pirates.

But these were worries for the future, for now Smoker needed to turn his attention to dealing with the situation in front of him and for that he needed to make use of this crew, that he thinks might eventually become legends. Of course that would only happen if he didn't catch them first.

* * *

A/N2: So, the next is the first of the planned StrawHat POVs for Alabasta. I'm planning on starting with Usopp, mainly because I kind of feel bad that he is the only East Blue crew to at this point only have his intro chapter, though I do think he with have a unique perspective. The next question is whether there will be only one more StrawHat after that or if I should add another.


	14. Usopp: Good Plan?

A/N: And now I remember why Usopp only had one chapter previously, he is hard to write. Not sure where this one ended up, at this point I just wanted to have a look through Usopp's eyes at the first real point that Luffy disappears to his own fight so long before the others find theirs, but I think it kind of took a mind of its own, also I might have messed with the canon a bit on the plan. The next one should show the situation better with a StrawHat I'm more comfortable with writing.  
As ever, thanks for faves and follows. And a reminder that reviews are welcomed.  
Arxhaelogist: Thank you, he's one of my favourite marines too. I like the outsider POVs for their unbiased views on crew positions.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks, I hope the wait for this one wasn't too long for you.  
Blue VanLocke (Review for chapter 1): Hi, welcome. That may be true for a lot of the crews but doesn't seem to be the rule. In the case of the Roger and Red-haired Pirates for example there is no mention of their first mates also holding the navigator position, and Luffy seems to be basing the way his crew is structured on Shank's crew. I hope that didn't put you off this story.

* * *

Usopp was not really sure of this plan. In fact he was very worried about it, especially considering due to the drawing of straws he was going into what was very possibly a dangerous fight with only a camel as backup and without knowing what he would be up against, he had no way of creating any form of plan to of attack. For now, he could only hold on tight as they sped across the desert through the night on the back of these massive, very fast ducks and think of what had led to this not so good plan.

Usopp guessed that it started with them trying to get away from the marines in Rainbase on a giant sand crab. He remembered his shock at the golden hook that had come out of nowhere and grabbed Vivi from where she was sitting. Then again at Luffy's quick action to jump to catch her and throw her back, keeping hold of the hook in order to get to his opponent. Giving the order as he was carried out of reach to get Vivi to the capital and stop the rebellion.

Easy for him to say, he was their best fighter and probably had no idea what they may have to face to help Vivi.

Usopp remembered his instinctive reaction of fear at the prospect of reaching the city without one of their main fighters, not to mention not knowing how Luffy may make his way there. Then he turned to the rest of the crew, noticing the solemn air that had fallen over them all at the departure of their captain. He knew that what promised to be a long trip may feel even more so if they remained this tense and that it may affect them in the battles to come. So with a quick glance at the only man on the crab not to be showing much worry of their captain, Usopp made some comment about none of them needing to worry with the Great Captain Usopp with them, breaking the tension.

This may have gotten him a couple of hits for being an idiot from Nami and Sanji, but it seemed appreciated by Chopper at least. Zoro, as ever if something didn't directly get in his face, completely ignored the ruckus, sitting facing the direction that the crab was traveling with a look of concentration on his face, but he remained calm, which had helped to settle Usopp's own nerves.

Upon reaching the river and the unexpected swim they had needed to take to get across, it had became obvious to Usopp that he was not the only one who was having their nerves settled by the swordsman's calm demeanor. He noticed that Nami was also taking glances at the swordsman after she began fidgeting a little with the pieces of her new staff strapped to her thigh. Chopper also seeming to take glances at the swordsman whenever it had been quiet for a while, though Usopp wasn't sure if he was doing it because he knew that the swordsman was the best read of danger at the moment or if he was just subconsciously following the other crew members' actions. He thought he might also have caught Sanji doing the same thing, though it might have been a twitch in his case.

But it was after they had been on the ducks for some time and Vivi signaled that they were getting closer to the capital that they had stopped to plan that Usopp realised why Zoro had looked like he was concentrating earlier in the night.

Zoro laid out a plan to try and lure out the Baroque Works Officer agents that Vivi believed they would be up against in the capital. This came as quite a surprise to Usopp, he hadn't even realised that Zoro had been paying attention to Vivi's explanations, he certainly hadn't appeared to be. Also, in their time together he hadn't seen much in the way of planning come from the swordsman, he was more a jump in and recklessly fight kind of guy. Sure, he had come up with a way to tell if someone was an actual member of the crew or an imposter, but that was really just logic as far as Usopp was concerned.

But the idea to have the rest of the crew split off into pairs, disguised in cloaks as they traveled toward the city, allowing Vivi to attempt to intercept the rebels was one that made good tactical sense. It was a plan that Usopp approved of.

At least he had until he realised that the drawing of straws left him with only a non-fighting camel as a "partner".

Oh, how he hoped that he could outrun whoever ended up after him and this day didn't end up being as dangerous as he thought it might be.


	15. Nami: Don't Forget Again

A/N: So, I started writing this one on Saturday and I kind of took my time with it, it's kind of turned out a little different than I thought it would. I still have two more chapters planned for Alabasta left but I'm not sure I will get them done by the end of the month like I originally planned. Even though the next one will probably be pretty short.  
As always thanks for the faves and follows.  
ilovecatoonsgirl: Thanks, that's all I can hope for.  
Ki Ken Tai Ichi: Yeah, he doesn't seem to get a chance to use them enough because of who the crew is though. Thank you.  
Arxhaelogist: Thanks, I've always seen him as one of the most observant characters. And now here's one where I actually do say it.

* * *

Nami was enjoying her quiet time in the palace, for all she was worried for her captain who still hadn't woken up. The entire time they had been on Alabasta had been hectic, so the down time while they waited for Luffy was a nice change for the time being. Especially after the last twenty-four hours of their quest to save the kingdom, which was worse in terms of the sheer number of important events crammed into that small amount of time. And the rest after the lack sleep that had occurred due to it all was really nice.

In all the time they had been promising to help Vivi save her kingdom, Nami hadn't really realised just how much danger would be involved in following through. Truly, that had started to sink in at Rainbase, what with the marines (though she could admit that wasn't only an Alabasta problem for them), then Crocodile and the seastone cage in the glass room which led them to nearly drown, then the marines again.

Then there was Luffy switching places with Vivi on Crocodile's hook, leaving them without their captain hours before they started their own fights, while still needing to get most of the way across the country to reach them without getting into more trouble. For all Luffy is usually useless in terms of plans, it was still a comfort to the crew (and Nami) when he was there.

But this was the point that reminded Nami that just because someone acts in a certain way most of the time, that doesn't mean she should forget some important facts that she knew about them. In this case in particular it was Zoro that very much reminded her to pay attention and remember. She will admit that she remembered that she had recognised the swordsman as the unacknowledged first mate of the crew, but due to his general laziness she had forgotten her own reasons for doing so.

So often while they were peacefully at sea, she was the one that took up part of the traditional role of the first mate, controlling the crew when the captain would not (many times for their own safety, she might add), and making sure the chores aboard ship were split evenly. So she could forgive herself for forgetting that when in combat, where she had very little experience, she was next to useless in keeping that control over her crewmates. Or that in the actual absence of their captain, Zoro had no problem with taking control of the situation, and not one of them would be bothered with it. It was just that he was generally too lazy to.

But that night as they were racing across the desert, first on a giant crab and then on ducks, he stepped up with such decisiveness that Nami didn't even realise she was deferring to him until they were almost to the capital. He'd taken command in what could be seen as a combat situation and made tactical decisions that she could only say were well thought out. Surprising her with his ability to do so.

It was only as they were starting to put the plan into action that she remembered that theirs was not the first group he had led, she knew that he had been the leader of the group with the bounty hunters from the east blue that had called him brother (she couldn't quite remember their names clearly). She wasn't quite sure how she forgot that but it was certainly a fact that she reminded of after this incident.

Then there was the other things he had done that during the time in the capital, things that if she just thought of how he usually acted on the Merry she would not have believed he would do. Like how he had acted as her partner before the fight with the assassins, Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger. He had tried to put himself between them and her as much as he could until he was too busy fighting to help her. Then when it was all over, she thinks he may have somehow stayed conscious while they all collapsed in exhaustion, watching over them until he was sure they were safe after all that they had been through.

She shook herself out of her thoughts, not really wanting to think on such things at this point when she could finally rest, especially when there was so much more that she could think on about their time in the country. She was just going to have to remind herself that everyone had different sides to them and not forget again that Zoro can step up when they most need him.


	16. Vivi: Forever a StrawHat

A/N: So, been a little while. I had planned to have someone between Nami and Vivi, but they would not cooperate so that got thrown out the window after a few weeks of trying. Once again, Vivi seemed to take over, I didn't realise how sad this was going to be to write and I may have gotten a little romantic in description on a part there.  
Once again, thanks of the faves and follows, they reminded me that there was people wanting to read this, even when I wasn't able to do any writing.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Yes, he is. Thank you.  
Black' Victor Cachat (Chapters 3, 5, 11, 13 & 15): Thank you so much. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for Robin.

* * *

The ruckus of Vivi returning from where she had given her speech had finally calmed down and now she sat looking out the window of her room in the palace at the moon shining over the city that was slowly rebuilding itself trying to come to terms with everything that had happened.

She should have been exhausted from her run to and from the coast to say goodbye to her friends, not to mention the sleepless night she had had the night before, watching them leave for their ship and then coming to her decision. But the quiet that had overtaken the palace as it settled for the night left her sleepless again.

It was too quiet, without the sleep walking and sleep talking that had occasionally devolved into sleep arguments and in one case a physical fight where both participants had been asleep at the time. That particular incident brought a smile to her lips as she remembered how exasperated Nami had been when she had had to get up to deal with the issue to stop them from destroying the men's quarters, only to come back grumbling about stupid cooks and annoying swordsmen who managed to fight each other even in their sleep.

There would be no badly concealed giggling indicating a midnight kitchen raid attempt tonight either, Vivi thought to herself before shaking herself and turning her thoughts to less melancholy topics, reminding herself that she had made her decision and she knew it was the right one for her, even if it left her at a loss for now.

Turning her gaze from the moon to the rebuilding city she still couldn't quite believe they had done it. The crew had promised her repeatedly that they would help her free her kingdom, but deep in her mind, and heart, there had still been doubts that what they could do wouldn't be enough. That a Princess and an oddly small (but definitely a little insane) pirate crew would not be enough to stop something that had been planned and brewing for years.

She had been really worried when Luffy had been carried off by Crocodile's hook in exchange for her, she feared her worst nightmare of someone sacrificing themselves for her was about to come true. It probably didn't help that she had been with the crew long enough to read their tells, despite them putting on what were, for the most part, pretty convincing facades of calm. But she could hear in the wavering and the volume of Usopp's voice as his stories filled the night, see the fidgeting of Nami and Dr Tony and the twitching of Sanji's fingers as he attempted not to chain-smoke his way through the night, that they were just as worried about their captain.

But she also noticed something else, each time one of them seemed to get close to breaking point, they would suddenly stop, Ussopp's voice would settle and his volume would go down, Nami and Dr Tony would still and so would the cook, like they were calmed in some way, at least for a time before the cycle would start again. It had taken her a few rounds of these cycles in each of them for her to notice it was happening though her own silent panic, but as she noticed them calming, she herself also calmed herself watching them. After watching them for a time though these cycles, she noticed that just before they calmed they would glance off in a different direction than the one they had been looking in as they worked themselves up, after watching them all a few more times, she noticed that each was looking in the same direction each time. Upon following their gazes, she noticed something that she had not realised until then.

Mr Bushido was sitting, gaze turned in the direction they were traveling. Though his back had been to her, she could tell that he was relaxed. Not the relaxed that he often was on the ship as he napped on the deck, but the non-tense way he would settle himself as he waited for the signal for a battle to begin. He was sitting there, concentrating ahead as their captain had been left behind to deal with his own battle, trusting that he would catch up to them when he could. At least that was the feeling Vivi had felt emanating from his silent figure before her. As she continued to watch his back, she too began to feel a calm settle over her that she had not felt since she had felt the hook grab at her and she had realised what was behind the cycles of worry and calm that the other members of the crew had been going through.

She had realised after a little while in the presence of the crew that the relationship between Mr Bushido and Luffy was a little different that Luffy seemed to have with the rest of the crew, and that the rest also had a slightly different relationship with Mr Bushido than with each other. It had taken Vivi until after the fight the fight at Little Garden, when she looked back on it after calming from her worry about Mr Bushido's actions, to realise the core of the difference. She found it in Nami's trust that Mr Bushido could get them out of the wax and Mr Bushido stopping his actions and leaving getting out them out to Luffy as soon as he arrived.

It had been the trust they put in Mr Bushido to know that everything would be alright or to fight to make it so, and Mr Bushido's trust in Luffy to come out of battle the victor that had been calming them all. It was a relationship between a group of people that she had been living within but not realised she had been living. A type of friendship that she will never forget and would always hold in her heart, knowing that the tiny crew of laughter and fighters would do the same.

Vivi turned her gaze back to the moon as she had these thoughts. The decision she had made the night before had been a difficult one, to stay and leave her friends to their further adventures without her had torn at her heart and she wishes she had been able to continue with them. But her heart was in the desert that was her homeland.

She knew the sea did not speak to her like she realised it did to her friends, as much as she enjoyed her time on and with it. She did not hear the laughter and beckoning of the waves as they all seemed to. No that wasn't quite right, she did on some level, but not in the way she heard it from the desert. And so she had made the decision to stay, but she had known she had to say goodbye properly, no matter how the people of Alabasta would react to her odd speech and not being where she had meant to be.

She was relieved that the fighting was over for Alabasta and she was thankful for her friends for helping to bring that about, she thought as she turned away from the window in order to stand and ready herself for her first full night as just the Princess of Alabasta once again. Stopping for a few seconds before standing to allow her hand to rest over the X on the back of her wrist as the thought came to settle her mind fully for the first time since she watched the Going Merry sail away. She may be a princess, but she was also a StrawHat, as far as her Captain, crew and she were concerned.


	17. Robin: Interesting Crew

So, Hi. It's been a while, and all I can blame is the fact that I was kind of dragged a little further into an old fandom that I hadn't read in years than I meant to and then into a new fandom after that. It may take a while to get the next one up as I need to go back and work out were I'm going next. Robin kind of hijacked this chapter, so very little of the other crew here. Also, let me know if it needs editing, it kind of came out pretty fast considering the block that had been holding it back for so long.  
As always, thanks for the faves and follows.  
yggdrasil001: Thanks, sorry it took so long to come.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks so much.  
Black' Victor Cachat: I'm sorry she took so long, and I kind of laughed as I wrote that. Thank you so much.

* * *

Robin sat up late with her coffee within reach, as she read one of the books she had brought with her onto this odd little ship.

She was not going to lie to herself, she was aware that that could lead to dangerous circumstances to herself. She was aware that she wasn't entirely sure why she had chosen to trick her way onto this crew. Sure, it was the captain's fault that she was still alive to do so, but she could have found another way off Alabasta, and another, more prominent crew to act as her protectors until she inevitable happened.

Instead she found herself on this little ship, made more for calm, short journeys in less treacherous waters than for the Grand Line, with one of the smallest crews that she had ever heard of getting this far into the Line. And she had heard of, or sailed with, a lot of crews in her twenty years on the run from the world.

Maybe, she had chosen them because she had had the opportunity to observe them thoroughly when she had been their enemy. Maybe, it was the way in which they had stuck together for one that had become one of their own, never seeming to, at any point, think that just leaving the princess to look after her own country and not getting involved themselves was the best idea.

Maybe, it was the fact that they did this, despite the fact they were new to the Line, had only one member of their crew with any bounty, that they had only been a crew for an infinitesimal amount of time. Maybe, it was that despite all this they had won, they had beaten an organisation that had years of planning and outnumbered them to a ridiculous degree.

(Maybe, if they could do this for someone they were fully aware would only be with them for a short amount of time, they could do this for her if she was one of them.)

( _Maybe, there was a sense in her that told her that instead of just finding the true history, she could also record the extraordinary story of this crew, someday._ )

Whatever it was that drove her to step aboard the Going Merry, she had and despite the observations she had made of them they still managed to surprise her. Not the quirkiness, that she knew, she had observed that, or heard of it. But the lack of suspiciousness from most of them, after the first few tense minutes, the effortless way that she had talked, bribed and tricked her way into the crew, leaving just the more swordsman the only one who made any attempt to watch her for treachery.

Even after she had made a point to tell them that her specialty was spying and assassination. They still trusted her with their backs, letting her walk the ship as she liked, and freedom in the night. This surprised her, especially given that she had only days ago explicitly been their enemy.

Then again, maybe it wasn't so blindly a decision, she thought of some of the looks that she had noticed over the course of her time among them that day, that she hadn't quite noticed the day before. Sure, they all seemed to trust their captain's decision to allow her aboard, and had allowed her to bribe them with that in mind but they were not as trusting as they may appear to be at first glance.

Throughout the day, usually as just as the other crew members had come within arms-reach of her, Robin had noticed that they had flicked a glance at the suspicious swordsman, just a small glance out the corner of their eye to where he was either training or leaning up against a rail. Something else she had noticed was the fact that although he had gone about what seemed to be a normal routine, he had not been that far from her either. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of all that yet though.

 _Something to ponder_ , she mused as she took a sip of her coffee before turning back to her book, she had time to decode this crew yet.


	18. Nami: FrustrationExplosion

A/N: This seemed to include a little more of my head-canon on Nami than I expected it to when I started writing it (she might have also taken over a little), but what can you do. Also, I had wanted to put another chapter between Robin and this one but then I realised that there is a ridiculously short time between Alabasta and Jaya in manga canon and couldn't think of anything to put there. I'm currently rereading to try and plan some more chapters out, Robin's was the last from my last planning session.  
Thanks for the favs and follows.  
ilovecartoongirl: Everything is definitely going to change. Thank you.  
Adelaide's Anagram: Thank you. She's definitely got an interesting perspective in that time, I kind of want to play with her a bit more in this state of mind, so maybe more of her soon. The Strawhats are definitely that.  
Black' Victor Cachat: Thanks. I had hoped it was.

* * *

Maybe it was everything that had lead up to that point that had lead Nami to explode so much at the incident in that stupid, cheap bar. She pondered on the idea as she sat in the girls' room trying to calm down a little.

A room that until recently had been shared with the first female friend that she remembered having (Nojiko didn't count, sister before friend), and now shared with the woman who had stood to harm that friend. How quickly she had let go of her suspicions after ten long years where her suspicious nature had kept her safe, allowing her fondness of money and jewels to overpower them.

What was it that lead her to do this. Was it the fact that Luffy said she was a good person, had she subconsciously learnt that Luffy had a much stronger ability to judge people on their ship than she did in most situations? Or had she subconsciously realised that Zoro would remain suspicious no matter what anyone said until whoever it was that had stepped foot on their ship had proven themselves?

Or was it that she trusted the two of them to react quickly enough to stop anyone from harming the crew if it came down to it?

Whatever it was, her reaction to Robin had caused her to hold a low level of frustration at herself since she had realised what she had done. It was added to the baseline frustration she always held about the fact that they couldn't seem to travel anywhere for long without something ridiculous happening.

For example, their log pose pointing upwards. Or a massive old wreck of a ship falling from the sky. Or a random salvage pirate crew possibly attacking them.

That level had skyrocketed after the events that had happened in that stupid excuse for a town.

She had only followed them in the first place to make sure they actually remembered to ask for the information they needed, but walking with them may have made her a little nostalgic for the time it had just been the three of them in those two tiny, barely sea-worthy boats held together with only a few badly tied ropes. The first time she had felt like she could have had friends since the bastard had shown up.

Even though she knew that they probably wouldn't take the promise she dragged out of them about not fighting seriously, she made them make it anyway. She just wanted to make sure they didn't destroy anything until they had what they needed.

She knew from a quick glance at him at the time, that Zoro had felt the same way as she had about the insult those jerks had given their Captain and the rest of the crew. But she had verbally held them all back. Even if it was only by reminding herself that they needed the village standing to get information.

Then at the bar, when that jerk had first attacked Luffy, Zoro had reacted so fast she didn't remember seeing him move. Sword out, threatening him. Retorting to her attempt to stop him that they had started it and he was only defending. She knew he was going to fight, and probably bring the entire building down on their heads.

So, she had done the only thing she could to get the information before she need to get out of the way. And the entire bar had laughed at her, at them.

At this Luffy had stood up, and said one of the most confusing things that she had ever heard from him, and she had heard some weird things come out of her Captain's mouth.

He had told them that they weren't going to fight.

And Zoro hadn't even questioned it. Just re-sheathed his favourite sword and stood there.

Why would they have done that? These jerks obviously didn't have any information they needed, and even if only one of them had fought they wouldn't have even had to break a sweat to take them all out.

But instead they just stood there and took a beating. Standing back up after every time they were knocked down. _Why?_

The after she had dragged them both out of the bar after the insults and the stupidity those jerks threw around without knowing a single thing about their crew, they had just stood up and acted as if nothing happened. Being annoyingly cryptic about what they both seemed to know about the weird cherry pie guy as they did.

Maybe she would have just calmed down quickly when they got back to the ship, surrounded by those that understood the truth of their crew. But instead the two idiots insisted in denying that anything had happened. Like it was not even worth wasting breath on explaining what had happened.

She would certainly like them to explain what had happened, because she felt like she was missing something important that explained the entire series of events. And Nami liked to know as much information she could in order to plan for every eventuality should this come back to haunt them.

Also, she didn't like being confused, especially when she had thought she had finally been able to understand exactly what kinds of choices her boys would make in any situation.

On reflection, she figured that she could be forgiven for finally exploding, considering everything.

* * *

Just a friendly reminder that favs and follows remind me that there are people waiting to read more, but reviews throw my motivation back in my direction. Con-crit welcome, or just tell me what you like about a chapter, I'm not exactly picky.


	19. Usopp: Out of the Loop

A/N: So, this was going planned to go up last week but I lost track of time. It also reminded me how hard Usopp is to write.  
Thanks for all the faves and follows.  
Lucky Guard: Thank you. I hope you like this one too.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thank you. Yeah, I think after everything she's putting up with at that point she can be forgiven for exploding once or twice.  
sharingankakashi007: Yeah, all round it would have been a frustrating situation, especially if you aren't sure what exactly is going on and nobody was explaining anything. Nami now has baseline frustration levels that she wouldn't know how to deal with the world without. Thanks.  
Queen Lily Tiger Ellyessa: Thanks. Very much poor Nami.  
Black' Victor Cachat: The Pudding situation is fascinating, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened there with everyone involved. The Robin situation did kind of bothered me for a while given all we know of Nami's backstory, I just hope I did the complicated situation justice. The Mocktown incident has always been one of those times that I think shows the core of the crew, Bellamy was a bully, like anyone else they had really gone against, but instead they knew they would win too easily and decided not to fight.  
Ravenclaw Slytherin: Thank you. Here you go.

* * *

Usopp was a little worried, Luffy was running late getting back and they needed to leave soon if they wanted to get to the spot that would take them to sky island.

In fact, he was still a little confused as to why he had gone alone in the first place.

Sure, he realised that Luffy had gone to get the old man's gold back, but the tension that had been present when he left had been unmistakeable. Usopp knew he was missing something, but he couldn't figure out what and he had a feeling if he asked he wasn't going to get an answer.

Luffy, Zoro and Nami had been acting weird since they got back from asking for information in the port. Zoro and Luffy covered in blood and bruises, unworried about their state while Nami had been untouched but furious. It had been so bad that Chopper had abandoned ship rather than face her, a bad idea for a devil fruit user whose original form wasn't made for ocean swimming in the first place. (Ussop preferred to remember that he had jumped in to save the reindeer, rather than that he had to escape the navigator).

After Nami had stormed off after yelling at the two of them, without even giving details, Usopp had just figured it was just another one of those things that the three of them didn't feel the need to talk about with anyone else. (Like how the three of them met. Like how they ended up on his island in a boat flying Buggy the Clown's flag.) So, he was just going to let it be, like he had everything else.

Especially after Nami had calmed down. (No need to accidently set her off again by bringing it up.)

Then, they got back with the bird they needed for their trip to find the old man and the monkeys badly injured, their skip wrecked and the gold gone.

Even under the ruckus of worry that overtook the area at the discovery, Usopp had heard Zoro call out to Luffy. Not loud, Zoro rarely had to be when he used that tone. Anyone who had been with the crew for more than one island, or incident learnt quick to hear that under any level of sound. The swordsman wasn't a big talker most of the time, but when he was serious, that was usually when everyone needed to pay attention.

All Zoro had done after getting everyone's attention was point to a symbol that had been painted on a tree and asked if their Captain wanted any help. Nami hadn't been happy at the sight, even less so that Luffy was going alone but hadn't said much other than threatening him with what would happen if he was late back.

They hadn't explained what was so significant about the symbol, but Usopp can guess given the reaction. And the fragments of the conversation between Zoro and Nami he had overheard afterwards.

The owners of the symbol had been the ones responsible for the state they had come back to the ship with earlier. Nami thought that Zoro should have gone with Luffy, Zoro thought that the fight would be too easy if he did.

About fights, Usopp was more likely to take Zoro's analysis as fact than Nami's, even when it seemed that it seemed not to make any sense. But Luffy was now almost an hour late and he was starting to worry that maybe Zoro had been wrong. (He'd only seen Zoro be wrong about a fight once, but that fight had nearly killed the swordsman, the scar across his chest a constant reminder of that to all who had seen that battle.)

But then again, Luffy's sense of direction wasn't that much better than Zoro's, at least according to Nami who spent time trying to insure he didn't go anywhere on an island alone. (But maybe that was to stop him from getting them all into dangerous situations, or eating away all their money.)

Or maybe he forgot to take into account the weight of the gold he had gone to collect. (Ussop ignored the fact that he knew Luffy could carry the same amount of weight as Zoro without slowing him down.)

Luffy was their Captain and the one of the best fighters in the crew, but he was a bit of an idiot. (Usopp really, really hoped that Zoro wasn't wrong.)

* * *

P.S: A friendly reminder that while favs and follows remind me that there are still people waiting to read more, reviews throw my motivation back in my direction. This chapter is proof of this.


	20. Sanji: Shy Marimo (Bounties)

A/N: An update less than a week after the last one, while also writing for the 20 years at sea event over on tumblr, you could say I'm a little proud of myself. With coursework starting up again next week I'm setting myself a goal to update at least once a fortnight, and if I can more often.  
Thanks for the favs and follows.  
Lucky Guard: Thank you.  
Queen Lily Tiger Ellyessa: Thanks.  
DeadlyMind-07: Thank you so much, here's a new update.  
sharingankakashi007: Yep, Nami is scary. Usopp isn't quite there yet. Thanks.  
ilovecartoongirl: Thank you so much.  
imadetiramisu: Thanks, it just always seemed to be that way to me. Here's a new one.  
cg037: Thank you, that's the plan.  
Waterwoman1414: Thanks, I was really just trying to make sense to myself what happens later.  
Black' Victor Cachat: Thanks. Yeah, I see Usopp as a very different character than the Monster Trio, he come at life and its issues from a very different place. (I'm very much looking forward to Water 7, just so much for me to play with. Thanks for the rec, too.) Someone really should have gone with Luffy just to ensure he didn't get distracted.

Warning: Sanji may have taken over this chapter, and it involves Zoro, so language.

* * *

Sanji still couldn't quite believe they had made it. Or even that such a place existed.

They were actually sailing on clouds.

If it hadn't been for that attack earlier and the conversation with the old guy, Sanji might have believed that the Knock Up Stream had killed them and they'd all gone to heaven. (If the shitty idiots hadn't also joined them up there at least.)

It was an amazing sight to take in. Even the shitty Marimo was wide awake to see it.

A quick glance at the idiot to verify this fact brings back all the frustration from earlier. The events that occurred as they were about to catch the Knock up stream, just added to the long list of things that annoyed the blond about the green-haired idiot.

First, when sweet Nami-swan (and almost every other member of the crew, beautiful Robin-chwan was as tidily composed as ever) was panicking about being sucked into that massive whirlpool, all he said (calmly Sanji might add) was not to bother trying to back out because somebody (their shitty captain) was already excited. No attempt to calm anyone down. No attempt to protect either of the ladies (or the rest of the weaker members of the crew). Not even an attempt to try and reason with the Captain (Sanji knew that this wasn't going to amount to anything, but the shitty Marimo had a better chance of it than anyone else). Just calmly pointing out that they were about to be swallowed by the whirlpool.

Then, those crazy guys in the raft showed up, talking about the bounty on Luffy's head and showed them all two bounty posters. Only two. Luffy's new bounty and the shitty Marimo's first.

Sure, the idiot took down the Mr 1 guy in Alabaster but Sanji had taken on Mr 2 and won. Surely, he deserved a bounty too. And how the shitty idiot reacted to his amount, not happy with how much it was. Couldn't he be happy that he had one at all.

Sanji had spent a long time on the seas, dealing with Marines and pirates both, he knew that often times there were many who didn't acknowledge pirates unless they had a bounty. Sure, having a Captain with a bounty made them a legitimate pirate crew, but unless an individual had a bounty to themselves they would be completely ignored in favour of those that did. It annoyed Sanji that he was not yet an acknowledged fighter but the government but the shitty idiot was.

The only thing that had lessened his frustration before he could find time to pick a fight was the fact that it had taken him the same amount of time to acclimatise to the lower oxygen levels in the sky. That they had both been as affected by the change in conditions the same as him and they had all recovered at the same time. It showed that he wasn't that far behind the two idiots, the government was just underestimating him.

* * *

P.S: Loving the Reviews and the motivation they throw back at me, please keep it up.


	21. Chopper: Confusion and Shame

A/N: I managed to meet my goal, yay! The next one will probably be again in another fortnight, all the reading I'm having to do is doing my head in.  
Thanks for the favs and follows.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks, he is definitely lovable isn't he?  
cg037: Thanks.  
Mercy Smith: Thank you, here's another one.  
DeadlyMind-07: He will definitely regret it. Thanks, and I try my best.

* * *

Chopper didn't think he had ever felt as relieved as he did when he realised that the entire crew was back together again after the trials of the afternoon.

Traveling on the Knock-Up-Stream that morning had been terrifying, and maybe a little exhilarating and the first view of the sky-sea had been incredible. There had been a few moments of utter terror when the oxygen levels had stopped Luffy, Zoro and Sanji from fighting, but that had passed quickly enough.

It had been fun meeting Conis and her father, new friends in a new place, an adventure learning in the way things work in the sky. It had been too bad that he hadn't been able to talk much about the way they go about healing up here, whether there were any new things he could learn as a doctor for his patients.

But then had come those white hat guys and told them that they had managed to break the laws of Sky Island and in order to try and get away before something happened they had tried to set off. Leaving Luffy, Sanji and Usopp to gather supplies while the rest of them readied the Merry.

Then that lobster thing had grabbed them and pulled them away, leaving the others behind. To Chopper that journey had been a mass of confusion and fear, wondering if the others would be able to find them again.

Chopper could clearly remember Zoro calmly telling Nami, Robin and himself to abandon ship while still close to the beach, offering to stay aboard and protect Merry. At least, before the sky-sea monsters made it clear that that was not an option. (Probably not the swordsman's best thought out plan, Chopper thinks back on it now, given that he and Robin were both Devil Fruit users and the "Luffy experiment" back at the beach proved that the cloud sea had the same effect on them as the blue one they knew.)

Chopper remembers the pride and confidence he had felt when he had been left to protect the Merry in his own while the others explored. The trust the others had shown in him for it had been incredible, that they thought him capable of such an important job on his own was a great honour.

He shies from the thought of what had happened after, the guilt and shame he felt for not living up to the trust they felt in him still fills a large section of his mind and heart. It had only been slightly lessened by the comments of the rest of the crew about what he had been able to do, and their lack of comments on his weakness. Still it had been a blow to his small store of self-confidence.

He remembered the panicked reaction of Nami at the sight of the Merry when the explorers returned. Her panicked calls for him over the space between the bank and the alter. He hadn't been able to bring himself to answer her, nor the softer, calmer calls of their newer crewmate. But when Zoro had called his name he couldn't ignore it. It had been against what he had learned of the crew for him to attempt to ignore it.

But it had only been his welfare that they had been able to ask about before, the others had joined them and calls to check on each other had been made. No-one turning to the state of the Merry until after all had been declared well with the crew.

Now they partied together because for now all was well and there would be gold for them to find tomorrow.


	22. Wyper: Blue Sea Warrior

A/N: This didn't quite go as I was expecting to, but it's done. Another outsider to the crew, because I kind of like him and find him an interesting character but he also kind of took over. Next up into the arc that I have kind of been waiting to get to.  
Thanks for the new favs and follows.  
RRina: Thank you. Here is a little more.  
ilovecartoongirl: Yeah, Chopper is adored, even when he doesn't realise it. There were vague plans about that, but then Wyper took over. Thanks.  
Minecraft Guardiansaiyan: Franky should be soon…ish, but Brook may be a little while.

* * *

Wyper settled into a place near the fire as the chaos that had overtaken everyone as they realised the Blue Sea dwellers had left without a proper goodbye began to die down. He was still feeling the effects of the injures he had gained in the fighting of the previous day, though he was not happy to admit it.

He was still slightly in shock as to the fact that so many had survived the battle, its aftermath and the fact that he and the other warriors no longer had to fight for their heritage. Granted he was aware that it would take time for the Skypieans and the Shandians to truly leave all the little grudges of the last four hundred years, but the main issues about land and access had been resolved and he was hopeful that that would be enough to begin a new time.

Again, not that he would ever admit that he was hopeful of such a thing as peace.

Four hundred years of constant war and all it took for the true beginnings of peace to be felt was a small group of Blue Sea dwellers showing up at the right time, and not really seem to care about the war that they had sailed right into the middle of.

Wyper was still not sure what to think about them either and he had done some thinking about it while everyone else was partying the night before.

He remembers his first run in with them, and they had certainly not seemed to be anywhere near as strong as they had proved themselves to be during Enel's survival game. Him being able to take out the three who had come at him easily and them needing Gan Fall to save them.

Then there were the run ins he had had with the weird guy with the hat, the one that had eventually been the one to ring the bell that should have been his duty, the one that seemed to be the leader of their group of warriors. He was an odd one, not really seeming to understand what they had wondered into, for all that he seemed to go after what he wanted after making his decision, Wyper could not understand the guy.

But the swordsman, the one with the green hair, him Wyper could understand. He was a warrior of his people, one that seemed to have his own code of action, much like Wyper himself in many ways, at least of what he had seen of the man. And he had seen quite a bit after they had ended up on the same platform of the island with Ohm at the end of the main battle and couldn't seem to get away from each other until after it was all over.

The way they he had reacted to finding the small fluffy creature, that Wyper had later found out was a healer, was very much how he knew he would have reacted himself if it had been one of his own people's healers attacked like that.

After having time to think about the incident, he was very aware that they had both reacted exactly the same way to the girl on the waver showing up with Aisa, and then getting eaten. Wyper was a little annoyed at himself that because he didn't know then what he knew now, he had worked against the man instead of with him to try and save them. If he had known, he would have.

He should have known they were alike really after what had seemed to be an automatic reaction to catch the dark-haired woman after Enel's attack struck her. Something he will admit he would have done himself if he had been able to reach Laki when the same had happened to her.

Wyper knew that he had been harsh to his warriors, to his people during his leading of the warriors as his ancestor had, but he was a protector, always had been. He had been harsh in an attempt to ensure only those who were ready would be on the front line of the war they had been fighting for so long.

For all that he saw himself in the Blue Sea swordsman and believed he understood the man, there were things about him and his companions that he didn't really understand. The way they had understood the note on the leaf sent down as trying to reach the bell was one of them. The fact that they knew what the bell meant to the Shandians, to him, without actually caring to understand it in the way of their people but rather what it meant to a friend down on the Blue Sea. The descendant of the man that had been his ancestor's friend.

Wyper shook himself from his wondering, scanning the area to check on the rest of his people, his ancestor's greatest wish has been achieved, it was now time to move on and work out how the two peoples will learn to live together on the one island in peace.


	23. Nami: A Frozen Admiral

A/N: Hey, so this is much later than planned, all I can say is that life decided to become a yo-yo and drag me all over the state with it. And so begins Water 7/Enies Lobby, fun for me, not so much for the StrawHats.  
As ever, thanks for the favs and follows.  
Black' Victor Cachat (chapters 20-22): Thank you so much. It's always amusing that Sanji is jealous of Zoro's Bounty. Yeah, welfare of the crew, over welfare of the ship, mostly. Zoro certainly seems to be the one that is most like idea of the warrior that the Shandians hold.  
cg037: Thanks.  
ilovecartoongirl: It was a fun POV to play with, glad you enjoyed it. I see a lot of similarities between the two, but it seems to be overlooked a lot. Thanks.  
Minecraft Guardiansaiyan: Yeah, me too.  
sharingankakashi007: Thanks. Yeah, there is a lot of fun for me in this arc.

* * *

Nami was glad that the last few days had been quiet, it allowed them to recover after their encounter with the Admiral. It was a relief that they seemed to have made it out of that situation more or less intact, she wasn't sure what she would have done if it had gone any worse.

And it could have ended in a nightmare.

Nami wasn't sure if there had been any fight in the time the crew had been together where she had been so unsure that they would get out of it in one piece. It had certainly seemed that they wouldn't while everything was happening.

It had all happened so quickly too.

One minute, Admiral Aokiji had been helping them to try and reunite the old guy they'd come across with his tribe, and the next, he had turned on them to try and take in Robin.

 _It's odd the moments that stick in your mind when events are moving that fast and the thought that flash through along with them_ , Nami thought as she looked back on those first moments of the fight.

Her memories of those moments seem choppy to her, like they were a were a series of photographs missing movements between them.

She distinctly remembered seeing Zoro jumping between the Admiral and Robin, because of course he did. Despite the fact that Luffy was the captain and Sanji went on about protecting her and Robin (or any woman really), Zoro was always the first to get between a threat and a crew member he thought couldn't yet handle the threat.

(Even the ones he was only just starting to trust, because Nami knew that Zoro never quite fully trusted anyone until he believed they had fully proved themselves loyal to the crew.)

Then there were the frozen limbs of the Monster Trio and a fully frozen Robin to worry about. Chopper and Usopp carrying Robin off for defrosting, leaving the rest of them to hopefully hold the Admiral off long enough to help. At least, that was what they had planned until Luffy made a decision, ordering Sanji and Zoro off to allow him to fight one-on-one.

Captain's Orders were Captain's Orders so the three of them had headed back to the ship to check on the progress with Robin and for the boys to defrost. (Of course, two idiots would decide the best way to defrost would be jumping into the sea.)

That was about the time that her memories returned to seamlessness.

She had gone to help thaw Robin in the bathroom, but she and Chopper had been able to overhear the conversation on the deck, if it could be called that. Usopp had been yelling at the two for leaving Luffy behind, calling them cruel, despite the fact that they had been ordered to do so. Nami had been almost to the door to deal with it (Captain's Orders may not happen often on their ship but they were followed), when Sanji had evidently lost patience with the sniper, yelling back. She had been at the door, fist ready to intervene, Chopper on her heels when Zoro had cut in stopping them both in their tracks.

She remembered his words clearly, had recognised the tone from the few times the swordsman had been forced to use it. The tone of the First Mate. "Stop it you two! This is not the time! Now is a critical moment of our survival. Right now, we have to remain calm and prepare for the worst!" It was those words and that tone that had fully brought the seriousness of the situation down on all of them. It had been a solemn mood that had taken over them all, standing side-by-side with the urgency they all felt to all be together and safe.

She and Chopper had gone back to trying to thaw Robin, joined by a sober Usopp when the others had gone to check on Luffy. Nami couldn't find the words to describe feeling of relief and worry that ran through her when Luffy was brought back to the ship in one piece but fully frozen. The feeling she knew the rest of the crew also felt.

The flood of relief through all of them when Chopper had announced their hearts were beating again was another thing that she couldn't quiet describe.

Though, now that she was thinking back on it, she realised that Zoro hadn't quite relaxed along with the rest of them at the announcement. He had remained as serious as he had been when dealing with the issue with Usopp and Sanji, as responsible. Checking with her whether that should sail or stay where they were. Checking the conditions of the other boys, even maintaining his napping stance rather than his sleeping one when everyone decided to crash in the kitchen with the invalids for the night. He had remained that way until Luffy had started up and running on deck again.

Yes, Nami was very glad the days of recuperation had been quiet. It had also been nice to hand over some of the responsibility on board while she was worrying. (Though, she kind of wished Zoro could remain responsible when it wasn't an emergency situation to give her a break more often.)


	24. Sanji: Shty Day

A/N: Whoops, I said something about the fun of Water 7/Enies Lobby then went MIA for 9 months. Well, that's life for you. Apologies for the wait. But I'm back with a very long chapter for this (Sanji took over) and have at least the next two chapters mostly planned, so should be up soonish.  
As ever, thanks for all the favs and follows.  
Minecraft Guardiansaiyan: Thank you.  
RRina: Thank you. I certainly think so.  
Waterwomen1414: This one is a lot longer. I do write these while going through the series, the little moments between the characters are just as interesting to me as the big battles.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: I'm glad I managed to convey the emotions well, hope I did the same thing here. This one was an emotional rollercoaster to write.  
ShamelessYeXiu: Thank you so much.  
Black' Victor Cachat: I feel that Nami is kind of done with the randomness and inconstancy of peoples' actions on the Grand Line. I don't think I picked up how many times he does things like that until going back over the series for this. He shows himself as capable of it but never does unless he has to.  
Rajo: Thank you so much, I hope you continue to feel this way about it as I go on.  
Guest(chapter 18): I feel the same way most of the time when I get to that point.  
Guest(chapter 23): Thank you.

Language warning: Sanji.

* * *

 _Was it possible for a day to be any shittier than this one_ , Sanji thought as he stared up at the ceiling of the room he was sharing with Chopper at the inn they had booked for themselves after the shitstorm that was the day. The tiny reindeer hadn't moved from where he had curled up on his bed after setting the last of his belongings out of the way. Partially muffled sniffs regularly interrupting the cook's reflections.

It was hard to believe that that morning they had all woken up happily in a regular Straw-Hat routine. It had started so well, randomly running into the lovely station lady who was nice enough to give them both directions and an introduction letter to a badly needed shipwright on a nearby island.

The possibility of getting another lovely babe on the crew to fill the empty place on the crew-roster had brightened Sanji's morning even more. Even though the idiot Captain's ideas of a 5-meter-tall guy and his attempt at sketching who he wanted for their shipwright, which looked part octopus, making the Moss-head's comments on the subject seem sensible.

" _None of that matters. The only thing we need to worry about is that their good at their job and want to join a group of pirates."_

(Thinking about the way that Usopp had acted so nostalgic about the Merry's many metal plates and repairs just caused another lightning strike of pain and anger to shoot through his chest. _How could it have come to that._ )

The buoying feeling had continued, with the people of the island welcoming them and pointing to where they can safely anchor, then the knowledgeable merchants of the market being willing to explain both what their produce was and how to make best use of it. It wasn't until he ran into Chopper alone, and realising that he was supposed to be with lovely Robin, that it had begun to fade.

Going back to the ship to hear the Moss-head explaining that Merry was dying hit him in the chest. They were losing a nakama here, there was nothing they could do.

" _A person grows stronger with wounds, but for a ship, the wounds only stack up and weaken it more and more."_

Then, beautiful flower Nami running into the ship to tell them that Usopp was injured trying to protect the money they had gained. Finding only a pool of blood where she had told them she had last seen them had been unnerving, particularly with how injured their flower had reported him being.

The blood trail, Luffy finding them, finding the sniper like that.

The walk with the others to the Franky House from his crewmates battered and bloody form had felt good. Nostalgic almost, like it had felt on the walk to Arlong park all that time ago, when he had still been new to the crew and learning what it meant to be a Straw-Hat. A reminder to himself even in all the chaos of the day that this was the Straw-Hats, they were the Straw-Hats.

( _They hurt one, they hurt all of them, and we will damn well show you the door to hell for it.)_

And it had felt even better to let loose all the pain, grief, worry, confusion and anger that had been building in the blond since finding Chopper out on the morons who thought they could mess with this pirate crew and get away with it.

Sanji smirked as he remembered the way the idiots had gone on yelling that there were only four of them, that taking them out would be easy. They hadn't even needed all four to take on that house, any one of the four of them could have taken them all by themselves (he would have been a little more skeptical about Chopper doing so, but the doctor had been sufficiently pissed to do it), but they had all wanted blood at that point and none of them would have stepped aside to only watch the beat-down.

The fact that the Moss-head was capable of having a logical conversation in what they had left of the Franky House after they had finished with it hadn't seemed odd at the time. He had seemed to be having one of his rare fully logical days since the morning, not having his stupidity getting on the cook's nerves as much, even before the day started to go to shit.

He had thought on the way back to their dying ship with a badly injured sniper, a missing flower and hard gathered money stolen that that was the worst that the day could get. _Surely_ , he had thought at the time, _there was no way for it to get worse._

He'd been wrong.

Usopp was leaving, he was challenging Luffy for their dying home and leaving the crew.

Just thinking of the events strengthened the storm of emotions again.

Why did the stupid Moss-head just stand there during the argument? Surely, if he had just tried he could have done stopped it from getting that far. At least, should have had a better chance that he, the worried reindeer and the beautiful Nami would had. But he had only tried once before Usopp had been told of Merry's fate, then just standing there silently.

In fact, if he had just taken out all the Franky Family that had come to the ship when he had the chance, they could have avoided the Usopp mess with them to begin with.

 _No_ , Sanji shook his head at himself as these thoughts came back to him. _This is just emotions taking over and wanting someone specific to blame_. _You know that they wouldn't have sent the entire family at the ship, and just because he didn't try to stop it didn't mean he wanted it to happen. He probably just realised that there was no way to stop it at that point._

For all his stupidity the Moss-head had never done anything that the blonde could recognise as wasting effort.

The duel had been hard, Usopp had seemed like the Captain's best friend for years when he had met the crew, like they had always known each other, even though he had been corrected on that by the other two members of the crew. To watch someone that had been a part of the crew longer than him leave had been difficult, to think that anyone would try to leave was hard. They were going to lose two members of the crew on the one island.

He had stood slightly behind the others on the ship to watch, a position that allowed him to see not only the duel itself, but the way that the rest of the crew watched. Had seen Chopper and Nami leaning on the rail, crying out to the fighters, looking as if they were one second away from jumping over the side and rushing between them to stop it. The only thing that seemed to keep them there the vague feeling in the back of all their heads at the idea of a serious "Captain's order" and the Moss-head standing beside them who they all instinctively knew would make sure to enforce said order if they forgot.

" _None of you come down!"_

The Moss-head himself had stood there at the rail, arms crossed and eyes forward to the battleground. Not once did the shitty swordsman take his turn his eyes from the fight, moving to stay steady during the explosion. The sight forced Sanji to do the same, giving the duellers the respect of watching it all, even if he couldn't keep himself as neutral as he did.

The time the shit-head had spoken was to bluntly call the duel.

" _You stupid asshole! There was no way that you would win!"_

If it hadn't for the green-haired asshole, Sanji didn't think they would have been able to do anything after that. He just calmly outlined what they had to do then got them moving. Abandoning the nakama that had been their home since the East Blue.

As much as Sanji wanted to be angry at the bastard for the way he dealt with the issue, his conversation with the Captain after still circled in his head even hours later. Reminding him of things about their way of life he would rather forget.

" _Heavy."_

" _That's what a captain is. Don't hesitate. If you can't be decisive, who can we believe in?"_

* * *

A/N2: Sorry again for the wait.


	25. Chopper: Determination

A/N: So, this chapter almost went up a week after the last one, but my computer and USB both conspired to eat the original chapter just as I was finalising it, leaving me to have to go searching for the motivation to write it all over again. (In other news, this is now officially the longest chapter yet at over 2000 words.)  
Thanks for the faves and follows.  
SakuraS41: Thank you. If it ever goes completely dead I'll mark it as complete, but I'm still excited about writing it even if I sometimes take forever to update.  
Einhornsirup: Thanks.  
Karen Killa: Thanks. That will be coming, but not quite yet.  
ShamelessYeXiu: Thanks. It was a pretty bad day all round.  
Minecraft Guardian: You are welcome, thanks.  
ilovecartoonsgirl: Thanks, and the emotional rollercoaster of this arc continues.  
Rajo: It certainly did, I'm glad you enjoy my interpretation of Sanji. We will be getting him, but not quite yet. You're not the only one. Thank you so much.  
Black' Victor Cachat: Definitely.  
sharingankakashi007: No, he doesn't. Thank you.

* * *

As he watched the island disappear into the storm behind them as they sped off after their missing crewmates Chopper was both relieved and excited. The couple of days they had had on it had been stressful and confusing, not to mention painful. But they now had a clear direction and goal to work toward, an enemy to fight, a plan to follow rather than chasing shadows like they had all day.

The first indication that the island would be bad for them that he had had was when he had lost track of Robin on the way to the bookstore. He worried now that if he had just been paying more attention he could have helped her as she was taken, could have given answers to the crew before everything decided to fall apart. They could have been ready for at least some of the trouble to come, could have avoided the division that happened by focusing on a bigger opponent.

Instead, he had been so excited for the possibility of some more books, he had not paid any attention to Robin. He wasn't even sure how long it had taken him to notice that she wasn't there and when he had, he had panicked.

It had taken running into Sanji as he searched to calm down and think logically about where she might have gone if they had gotten separated. Of course, it made sense to head back to the mutually known fixed point of the ship after losing the other and possibly finding another crewmate to warn that they had lost each other in town in case something had happened. It made sense if that was what had happened.

It hadn't but been what had happened and going back to the Merry had just begun piling up their bad luck and news.

Chopper tried not to think too hard on the way that Zoro had calmly informed them that Merry was dying. The way that Zoro had been nice enough to try and explain her condition as wounds so he could understand why. He hadn't had much time to process the loss he was feeling for the first home away from Drum he had had. Not with everything else that had happened between then and now.

Nami had returned to the ship too quickly afterward to accept the loss at the time, bringing with her the worry for Usopp.

He remembered the feeling of reaching the place Nami had told them he was and finding nothing but a pool of blood. The doctor on in him had sat up and paid even more attention than it had been at her description of Usopp's condition at the sight as Sanji and Zoro both made worried comments of their own. If he had been as bad as Nami had told them he was, then went to try and get the money back again, what condition would he be in when they found him?

Running into Luffy on the as they were about to head off after him in a typical Luffy fashion had had only helped to push them after Usopp faster.

Oddly, despite his worry for Usopp, being with the three of them at the time had felt safe. Like there was nothing to worry about, they could stand against anything. He knew that the crew jokingly referred to them as the Monster Trio, and they were the strongest fighters in the crew, but he couldn't remember another moment he had felt as much a part of them as he had as they had walked up to the Franky House after finding Usopp like that.

Like he was one of them. Like he was just as strong. Like he had the right as much as any of them to say, _"You hurt one of us and we will hurt you just as bad"._

Then there was the craziness of the argument between Usopp and Luffy.

Chopper had known that Usopp had a special connection to Merry, he liked to tell the story of how his friend from his home had given her to them. But he hadn't really realised how he would take the news of her condition. Though, after a sleepless night, he realised that the way he had been told was probably not the best way to break it to him.

The argument itself was a blur of noise, grief and worry in Chopper's memory as the rest of them tried to get the two of them to stop. He even vaguely thinks that he heard a deeper, calmer voice once through the noise, and for the first time in Chopper's time on the ship everyone had ignored whatever Zoro had said.

The way Usopp had spoken to him when he had tried to go after him to help him with his wounds had hurt. He could admit that in his mind, if not out loud. He didn't want to accidently add to the way the others felt toward Usopp after split. Both Usopp and Luffy were his best friends on the crew, they were best friends with each other too. Chopper hadn't had any friends at all before the Straw Hats, just Doctor and Doctorine, he didn't really understand what happened. Why had it had to happen like that? How could he cut ties with all of them so easy?

He remembered that when the time came for the duel, Zoro had tried to tell him to go inside if he couldn't bring himself to watch. The truth is, he didn't know if he could have stayed to watch it from the deck without interfering if Zoro hadn't been standing right beside him. The solid presence gave him a silent reminder in the back of his head each time he thought to try and jump the railing that Luffy had told them to stay where they were. It was also a reassurance to him when the world felt like it was shifting all around him, pulling away what he thought he knew of being on a _Pirate Crew_ out from under him, that there was something steady right beside him.

Chopper understood now why Sanji had tried to stop him going to Usopp after the fight, but he remembered his anger and confusion at the time. He was a doctor, his first instinct will always be to help an injured person, especially a friend.

They had all been emotional wrecks at the time, but he remembered how Zoro had taken charge and gotten them moving before they could fully break. Getting them through packing up their home and to an inn, ensuring they were settled for the night.

For Chopper it had been a restless one, even after he had cried himself out. Going over and over the events of the day, the what ifs and if onlys until dawn light and habit had pulled Sanji from his bed in their shared room and out into the day.

Chopper had remained only a short time alone until he had felt he needed company. He had first tried Luffy and Zoro's shared room across the hall and had almost panicked when no-one had answered. He may have knocked a little harder than needed on Nami's door in response, but she had just partially opened the door, taken one look at his face before saying, "roof" and shutting it again.

When he had reached the roof, he had been a bit confused at first. He had only seen Zoro leaning on the bell-tower. The swordsman's eyes had opened as Chopper walked up to him before tilting his head a little to one side. Chopper had followed with his eyes until seeing the Straw Hatted figure on one of the nearby towers, allowing him to relax and just sit beside the swordsman.

It had been Sanji returning to the inn that had begun the events of the day. With Chopper choosing to go with him to continue looking for Robin before Nami had run in with news about the mayor being hurt. So, they had all split up, Nami and Luffy to the mayor, Sanji and Chopper to Robin and Zoro had stayed behind to wait.

After running into Robin and listening to the things she had said, then Sanji telling him to tell the others exactly what she had said, he hadn't really given much thought to exactly what it could mean other than the fact that they had lost another crew-member. At least, until he had found the three of them together and relayed the message.

That had been an oddly serious crew meeting, even Luffy had been still as they talked. Chopper had kept silent unless asked a question to clarify what he had already said. Like there was a pressure on him to remain quiet while Nami and Zoro talked over the situation and advised Luffy on the paths that could be taken from there. Even more particularly for the crew, they made a clear enough plan as to how they would go forward.

It hadn't been until they were waiting at Galley La for a sign of Robin that he realised what it was he was reacting to with this particular group. Usopp often used to tell stories about the early days of the crew, for all he didn't know all that much about what happened before he joined. But one thing was clear, the three crew-members he was currently with were the original three, the ones that started the crew.

It wasn't until they were moving on Galley La that Chopper was reminded again why they so rarely made any kind of clear plan before jumping into a fight. Luffy never follows them. Also, Zoro and Nami's attempts to factor Luffy into any plan they makeup to cover for a failed plan tend to backfire just as badly, as evidenced in their rather confusing entrance to the building.

Then, when they got in there were the crazy Government people with Robin inside the building. When they tried to get a clear answer as to what happened and whether Robin was really leaving and Luffy had been adamant that she wasn't. Chopper remembered watching Luffy and Zoro attempt to fight them and he had been terrified. He could only remember one other time they had both been taken down so quickly, back when they had just gotten to the lower sky sea and they hadn't yet been used to the oxygen levels.

The roof had begun to fall in after one of the attacks and Chopper had been caught under while pushing Nami out of the way. He missed much of what happened after until he was able to get free in the middle of the fire. He had no conscious idea how he had managed to do so with the two shipwrights and Zoro's sword.

Then, there was getting free and finding out that Robin had done what she had done for them. Looking for the others to let them know, trying to do it all in time to stop the train.

Chopper remembered his reaction when he had realised that what he had thought was a sea anemone had actually been Zoro's legs and swords sticking up from a chimney in the Back Streets that the shipwrights helping them had warned him to avoid during the coming Aqua Laguna. Though, he still didn't quite understand how Zoro had known that he had one of his swords, it was good that he managed to cut himself out in time to allow them to start too head back before the massive wave.

After the terror of the close call with the water, it was even more of a relief to tell both Luffy and Zoro the truth of what Robin had done. The reaction could only be described as determined, even if they almost fought the shipwrights for a ship to follow them before the lady from the train station the day before offered them another way.

Now, Chopper was helping he by shovelling coal in the engine of the Rocketman as they sped after their friends. They were coming.

 _The Straw Hats didn't leave anyone behind._

* * *

A/N2: Also, a heads up that there will be a lot of different perspectives on some of the same scenes through this arc. There is a lot of crew dynamics here and different people see and feel very different things in the same situation, so I'm going rely on that for that but I feel I need to cover certain moments by different people for different reasons. Usopp vs Luffy is one of those and you will see it again.


End file.
